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Every Monday PopcornBiz applies a special formula to the top 10-grossing movies of the weekend, taking into account their staying power, budget and critic ratings to determine who really won the weekend. We call it the PopcornBiz Standings.
Despite overall grosses and attendance being down for the year, Hollywood managed to wrap up the year in grand style, with seven movies making over $10 million and getting increased business from EVERY film in the Top 14. Best of all: Some of these movies are actually good! I swear it's true! Not "Alvin & the Chipmunks," but some of the other ones in there are legit! It warms my heart when good movies make lots of money, because that means that Hollywood will be encouraged to make more good movies and then fail! Here is the final box office chart via Box Office Mojo.
1. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - $29.6M
2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - $21.0M
3. Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked - $16.4M
4. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - $14.8M
5. War Horse - $14.4M
6. We Bought A Zoo - $13.2M
7. The Adventures Of Tintin - $11.4M
8. New Year's Eve - $6.4M
9. The Darkest Hour - $4.3M 10. The Descendants - $3.4M
"M:I4" has nearly recouped its entire production budget in North American grosses alone. And it's cleaning up abroad, which means that Tom Cruise will become more powerful than ever. Um... yay? I guess? Anyway, was "MI:4" strong enough this week to dethrone George Clooney, who has dominated these rankings for seven straight weeks? (FANCY CALCULATOR SOUNDS!)
1. The Descendants - 405
2. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - 389
3. The Artist - 350
4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 306
5. War Horse - 135
6. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - 101
7. Young Adult - 87 8. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - 84
9. We Bought A Zoo - 82
10. The Muppets - 46
You cannot kill "The Descendants." We're gonna have to take it out in a boat in choppy waters and ride around until it bumps its head and falls into a fatal coma. Elsewhere in the standings, the Oscar darlings have begun to flex their muscle, with "The Artist" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" roaring into the top 5 thanks to wider releases and higher grosses. No other movie in our top ten came close to the per-screen averages held by TTSS, which clocked in at nearly $20K per. Be on the lookout for "The Iron Lady," which opened on just four screens this weekend and should fare better once it goes into wide release.


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"The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" aired as scheduled Monday night, but with a decidedly cautious atmosphere after cast member Taylor Armstrong's husband Russell committed suicide weeks before.
Russell Armstrong hung himself Aug. 15, after filming for the show's second season was complete. Difficulties in the Armstrongs' marriage were a storyline in Season 1 and cast members said Russell Armstrong's death came after a separation.
The episode began with the housewives (excluding Taylor) discussing the suicide, the Hollywood Reporter said. Then, the footage shot before Taylor's death began.
The cast gathered at Adrienne Maloof's home on Aug. 29 to film a short prologue addressing the suicide for the season premiere on the Bravo network. Producers are editing the ensuing episode and the remainder of the season, presumably to take some of the focus off the couple's marital problems.
Taylor told her friends that she and her husband were in therapy. "We're working on things," she said. "We're knee deep into so much psychotherapy that I'm sick of myself. So it's been really helpful for each of us to take a look at our own lives and what we brought into the relationship and how it's affecting our time together."
Ken Todd, husband of cast member Lisa Vanderpump, said he felt undergoing therapy was a sign of weakness, upsetting Taylor Armstrong, who called his comments "rude."
Russell Armstrong left no suicide note, but cast members speculated financial difficulties may have led to his suicide. They said Taylor Armstrong might not have been aware of the couple's troubles.
"The Real Housewives" series of shows thrives on gossip and internal strife among cast members and the Armstrongs' marriage was a frequent topic. Cast members noted in the show's prologue that they often only heard one side of the story, with some regretting they didn't have his perspective on events.
"I think we were all told the same thing and we were only reacting to what we've been told," Camille Grammer said. "And what we we've been doing — I think we were all doing it — was we were just trying to protect our friend."
"Real Housewives" Addresses Armstrong's Suicide
"The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" aired as scheduled Monday night, but with a decidedly cautious atmosphere after cast member Taylor Armstrong's husband Russell committed suicide weeks before.

subset: commoncrawl


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The expectation is for children to have a go and then return the work to school when the school reopens.


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Ann Hirsch, ButterFace from "horny lil feminist," 201415 (still). Video, sound, color; 2:21 min. Courtesy the artist.
Copresented by Rhizome and the New Museum as part of First Look: New Art Online. View work. (Contains nudity.)
In 1978, feminist writer and activist Andrea Dworkin commented that "no woman needs intercourse; few women escape it." Dworkin's viewpoint is consistently marked by refusal and withdrawal, particularly in relation to more sex-positive and arguably more livable philosophies. And yet, her condemnation of intercourse and, by extension, heteronormative gender definitions can nag at aspiring feminists seeking to define their own path in the face of desire's true complexity. Ann Hirsch's "horny lil feminist" (2014–15) eschews the notion that desire necessarily hews to our political and personal ideals and rather interrogates how it is formed out of the often unjust—sometimes oppressive, sometimes progressive—power dynamics of our daily lives.
An artist noted for her thoughtful and fresh take on feminist issues, Hirsch creates installation, performance, and online works that often examine sites of female agency within the media. Her previous works have involved her recreating a cyber–love affair she had as a teen with an older man in a piece that was made available both as an e-book transcription of all their AOL chats and a live performance (the e-book version was made available on iTunes and was subsequently kicked off, as it was deemed "crude and objectionable"). Hirsch's other works have included YouTube performances as a character called Scandalishious that rip what is popularly known as the "camwhore" aesthetic, whereby a girl titillates her anonymous online viewers through performances for her computer's built-in camera.


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Look, an update in real time! I can't quite believe it myself. Somehow my pages for Project Life came together in about two hours total this week. So fast that I was still had daylight to take photos, upload, edit and even post here. Maybe this is my system really working? Here's hoping...
{April 16 - 22}
LEFT: Baby amidst laundry, record high temperatures in April, pain at the pump, a video chat screen capture, more park photos and a note about our brilliant toddler all on one side.
RIGHT: Tree hugging, brotherly love, coffee (yes, please!), discovering toys and a cute little baby tush.
INSERT FRONT: I hadn't planned on yet another insert this week (3 weeks running!) but, we had such a wonderful day on Sunday with too many photos to choose just one. The divided photo page I used not a PL product but, works great and is available here, if interested.
INSERT BACK: Front and back are about how we made the most of a rainy day inside with pita pizzas, baking cookies, drawing and stickering and fun with pipe cleaners and a colander.
{As always, click on any photo for more detail}


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Thursday, March 1, 2012
No Ball Game For Him
"But a tower in Burnette, Indiana. At your age. A professional man like you. I just don't get it, Maurice. I just can't believe there's much to it. You tell me you're sleeping in a chair. You admit you can't get your apricots stewed the way you like them and you say you can't get your brown eggs or your three-bean salad at all. Can't you see you're living in a house of -- cards? I almost said a house of pancakes."
I regard those last two lines as among my favorite bits of dialogue, as well as among the funniest I've ever read. This is no doubt a matter of taste, but I have an abiding love for any writer who can faithfully -- though not necessarily with complete slavishness to kitchen sink realism -- and imaginatively recreate these sorts of quirks in human speech. More than that, though, this passage is a nice illustration of Portis's style, which is a kind of deadpan absurdity that can be much admired but rarely emulated to the same effect. I know that among Portis's cultish (hey, that's I guess ironic) group of fans can be counted comedians like Conan O'Brien (who I remember, in an interview with Rolling Stone offering to lend Masters of Atlantis to his interviewer, as O'Brien regards it as one of the few laugh-out-loud novels he's ever read, but then mildly regretting his generosity and making sure the journalist knew that he wanted the book back at some point), David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, and Bill Hader (who is currently, with director Greg Mottola, working to make a film of Portis's The Dog of the South), but I can't say I can see much direct influence from Portis on any of them. There are no doubt a host of reasons for this, but I think paramount would be that in Portis, you rarely find any jokes, as we would normally define them. Outside of a few omniscient narrator interjections, which are in any case rare, everything in his fiction is played as straight as can be, to the degree that you actually sort of are laughing at the characters, rather than with them. But gently. But also loudly. In any event, I think it's probably very difficult to accurately, and genuinely, reproduce what it is Portis does, this sort of ridiculousness without ever winking at it, or signalling it. Portis's brand of absurdity must be, as Johnny Caspar once said regarding friends, a mental state.
Portis is, blessedly, still with us. He's 78, lives in Arkansas, as he has pretty much his whole life, and hasn't written a novel since Gringos in 1991. Before that was Masters of Atlantis in 1985, The Dog of the South in 1979, True Grit in 1968, and Norwood in 1966. And that's it. I'd very much like to know what happened after 1968, not to mention after 1991. Could the fairly wild success of True Grit, and the subsequent film adaptation by Henry Hathaway and starring John Wayne, have had anything to do with the eleven-year gap? I have no idea, and don't want to speculate, so I won't. But I can't help but wonder if Portis, as J. D. Salinger is reported to have done, has been writing this whole time, and simply stashing it all away because actually publishing doesn't much interest him. He's a recluse, which maybe helps to fuel my Salinger-esque fantasy, though unlike Salinger he can be rustled out in front of a journalist from time to time, most recently in a few short pieces -- I read one where the journalist pointed out that while Portis agreed to be interviewed, he would not allow himself to be directly quoted -- that coincided with the Coen brothers' 2010 remake of True Grit. It must be said, though, that as publicity-shy as Portis is, he does owe a lot to articles written about him in the years since he's gone quiet. Especially articles written by Ron Rosenbaum, who wrote a piece for Esquire in 1998 called "Our Least-Known Great Novelist." Sadly, this article doesn't appear to be available on-line*, but I read it way back when, and it immediately sparked my interest. At the time, I only knew Portis as the author of True Grit, and I only knew True Grit as the John Wayne movie where he says "Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!" I wish I could remember the Rosenbaum article better, but what's most important about it is that it actually made something happen. Along with simultaneously exciting and frustrating, because the books were out of print, save True Grit, people like me, it also caught the eye of Tracy Carns of Overlook Press, a publishing company whose area of expertise can be inferred from their name. And, over a period of a few years, beginning in 1999, Overlook reprinted all five of Portis's novels, and they have remained in print ever since. This is not some flash-in-the-pan, trendy kind of resurgence, clearly. Portis's books are hanging in there once again. He's just not writing any more of them.
I was inspired to think, and to write, about Portis after rereading Norwood recently, and I was struck again by his effortless, or seemingly, but probably actually not, effortless, comic tone. And incidentally, if you're new to Portis, Norwood is an excellent place to start, for several reasons. For one thing, it can be easily read in a day, by anybody, though if it were ten times as long I don't think I'd kick up much of a fuss. More importantly, having also reread Masters of Atlantis, a book written almost twenty years later, not too very long ago, I can attest that Portis's voice, or style, or whatever you want to call it, was pretty much fully formed right out of the gate. He knew at once the particular way he wanted to be funny, or was funny, and how to put that on the page. You could safely argue that Masters of Atlantis is more ambitious than Norwood -- and though it's hard to pick, I might rank Masters of Atlantis as my favorite (that or True Grit, but please don't tell Portis that) – but you couldn't claim it was more mature, or a more accomplished example of his prose style. He had that down early.
Norwood is about Norwood Pratt, a recently discharged Army veteran who is returning home to Ralph, TX following the death of his father. The primary reason he needs to take over the family home is because somebody needs to take care of Vernell, Norwood's sister. This is established much more economically by Portis in the novel's first sentence, but I'll dispense with the rest of the plot summary by saying that Norwood is essentially a road novel, which is kicked off in part by Norwood's too easy-going, slightly naïve manner, as well as his understanding that these parts of his personality can only be stretched so far, and Vernell's recent taking up with ex-Marine blowhard Bill Bird has stretched them pretty taut. So he agrees to take a job with a shady businessman named Grady Fring, who wants him to drive two cars to New York City and deliver them to Fring's man up there, for which Norwood will be paid probably not enough, but the trip will also give him the opportunity to collect the seventy dollars he's owed by one of his Army friends, who also happens to live in New York. And off he goes.
Nothing lasts for long in Norwood. It's typical of road stories that they bounce from incident to incident, that's their nature, but Norwood sheds characters and locations and modes of transportation at a furious clip. And since it's a short novel anyway, this has the effect of making the thing pretty impossible to set aside. But it's never rushed, nothing is short-changed, you never wish Portis or Norwood would linger somewhere or with someone longer than they do. Portis's imagination may chug along, but he has a very sharp sense of pacing, and an ability to elegantly sketch out a place, or a character, or a comic...I was going to write something like "interlude," but that sounds way too stuffy. So here's what I'm talking about. Norwood has recently arrived in New York, and he sees a man dressed as Mr. Peanut outside the Planter's store, beckoning to potential customers. Norwood goes over and starts talking to him.
"Do they pay you by the hour or what?" Norwood said to the monocled peanut face.
"Yeah, by the hour," said a wary, muffled voice inside.
"I bet that suit is heavy."
"It's not all that heavy. I just started this morning."
"How much do you get an hour?"
"You ast a lot of questions, don't you?"
"Do you take the suit home with you?"
"No, I put it on down here. At the shop."
"The one in Dallas gives out free nuts."
"I don't know anything about that. They don't say anything to me about it."
"He don't give you many, just two or three cashews."
"I don't know anything about that. I work at the post office at night."
"Well, I'll see you sometime, Mr. Peanut. You take it easy."
"Okay. You too."
I think this passage pretty nicely encapsulates Norwood, so if you found it funny you should love every page of the novel. Even if you don't understand what I'm on about, read it anyway. There's a subtle profundity to all of Portis's work (though I haven't read Gringos yet, which is why I keep not mentioning it; I'm told it's very much a lesser work, by a friend who knows his Portis, but I remain undaunted and will read it presently) -- True Grit is especially magnificent in this way, though as a more-or-less straightforward Western, one that still happens to be very funny in parts, it does count as something of an outlier among Portis's small body of work.
But in Norwood, for instance, there's a bit where Norwood and a couple of characters who have gathered themselves among him at this point, including a chicken, are traveling by bus and find themselves passing by an accident, another bus carrying Elks, the Rotarian or Oddfellow kind of Elks, not the animal, and among the wreckage Norwood sees...
One Elk was lying on the grass, maybe dead, no ball game for him, and others were limping and holding their heads.
That "no ball game for him" is both fairly hilarious and glibly, intentionally so, touching. The suddenness of the fatality, even the unfairness of it, is contained within that bit of flippant gallows humor. Also, a woman named Rita Lee, who has caught Norwood's eye, and Norwood has reciprocated in his typically laconic fashion, questions Norwood about his military service, and asks:
"Did you kill anybody?"
"Just two that I know of."
"How did you do it?"
"I shot 'em."
"I mean but how?"
"Well, with a light machine gun. They were out there in front of the barb wire and one 'em hit a trip flare. It was right in front of my bunker and they just froze. My gun was already laid on 'em, except I had to traverse a little and I cranked off about thirty rounds and dropped 'em right there."
"Did they scream?"
"If they did I didn't hear 'em. A bunch of mortars come in and when that let up me and a old boy from South Carolina name Tims went out there and throwed a plank acrost the war and brought their bodies back."
But, crucially, this isn't Portis making a statement. This is all pure character, or straightforward observation. If Norwood has a message -- and it doesn't, but if it does -- it's that if you take enough shit, after a while you won't take it any longer. Not that you shouldn't take it any longer, because Portis never insists on anything, but simply that you won't. It is a quietly beautiful book in some ways, though the beauty isn't as easy to root out as it is in True Grit. Laughter can sometimes obscure things a little bit, so once you've read Norwood, go ahead and plan on reading it again. And everything else Portis wrote.
*In the absence of Rosenbaum's Esquire article, you can read this one he wrote about Portis for the New York Observer in 1999. For the record, this is where I got my information on the Overlook reprints.
3 comments:
- Jim Gabriel said...
Oh, well done, Bill. Cool of you to key in on NORWOOD, which I haven't read since I was a sprite; that needs to be fixed soon. I would disagree with your friend on GRINGOS, but not vehemently; why would one pick a fight with a fellow Portishead? I think very highly of it, though, and hope you do, too. Again, thanks for this.
- March 1, 2012 at 7:49 PM
- bill r. said...
Thank you, Jim. Regarding GRINGOS, I told my friend that his objections to it would cut no ice with me because I came across a quote from it online -- which I can't find now -- that was so purely Charles Portis that I couldn't imagine not enjoying it.
As for rereading, I very badly need to reread THE DOG OF THE SOUTH. That was the first Portis I read, and I read it before the Overlook reprints, and that was far too long ago.
- March 1, 2012 at 7:54 PM
- P. McKelway said...
Having read them all but GRINGOS, and that's next,
I'll be damned if I have a clue how he does it, which may be why he hasn't written that much. It's probably extremely draining work.
- March 3, 2012 at 9:37 PM


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开户送Discover a world of family science activities! In English and Spanish.
开户送Here is our entire digital curriculum for PLUM LANDING!
PLUM LANDING™ is produced by WGBH.
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- Focus on Funds
FINRA OKs Backtested ETF Data For Institutional Investors
- Order Reprints
- Print Article
If I'm reading this guidance letter recently posted to the web correctly, the regulatory body FINRA is now allowing fund companies to use back-tested index data when marketing ETFs and other index-based investments to institutional investors.
The old rules prohibiting the use of back-tested index data in communications with retail investors still stands, the letter makes clear.
Here's the key part of the discussion by FINRA. "PIP data" stands for pre-inception index performance:
FINRA staff believes that FINRA Rule 2210 permits the use of PIP data in institutional communications in the manner proposed in your letter. However, in applying the suitability standards for recommendations to institutional customers, a firm must be careful to not give excess weight to PIP data, and to the extent PIP data informs the firm's understanding of the security and its performance characteristics, the firm must consider the correlation between PIP data and actual performance for similar ETPs managed by the sponsor, investment adviser or index provider.
In determining whether or not to use PIP data with institutional investors, firms should consider:
- The assumptions, rules and criteria used to create the PIP data, in sufficient detail as to permit the firm to clearly understand how the PIP data could be replicated, using readily-available market data;
- The reputation of the entity that created the PIP data, and if the sponsor of the ETP paid for creation of the model, how any material conflicts of interest have been addressed or mitigated;
- The conditions under which the PIP data may not be effective in predicting how the ETP may perform (e.g., very low or high interest rate environments);
- The source of the data used to produce the PIP data;
- The extent to which the PIP data has been tested under varying market conditions and scenarios, based on both an analysis of historical data and simulations or stress tests; and
- Any reasons why the PIP data would have differed from actual performance of the ETP during the period shown (e.g., transaction costs, market liquidity).
While we do not object to the use of PIP data in institutional communications as discussed herein, this letter does not affect FINRA's long standing position that the presentation of hypothetical back tested performance in communications used with retail investors does not comply with FINRA Rule 2210(d).
Why is this significant? It shows that FINRA thinks institutional investors are sophisticated enough to handle data that is often flawed and can be used to suggest a much better future performance than is actually likely to take place.
The worst-case scenario for flawed back-testing would go something like this. Imagine a new financial-sector ETF whose impressive 10-year backward-looking performance includes shares of Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan (JPM) ... but omits the now-defunct Lehman Bros. and Countrywide Financial. FINRA, for its part, specifically mentions interest-rate environments as one reason to treat back-tested data with care.
There's still no substitute for watching a fund proving itself on the market over a period of years. FINRA is banking that institutional investors know this.


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A century of aviation and aerospace in Western New York will be the topic of a March 28 talk at St. Bonaventure University's Walsh Science Center.
Hugh Neeson, a longtime executive in the aerospace industry, will present "Aviation and Aerospace in Western New York: 1914-2014" at 4:30 p.m. in the Walsh Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public.
Neeson is on the board of directors and executive committee of the Niagara Aerospace Museum, where he also serves as the director of development.
Now retired, Neeson spent 44 years in the aerospace industry with Bell Aircraft, Chrysler Missile Systems, Bell Aerospace-Textron and Lockheed Martin.
In the latter part of his career, he served as vice president of electronic and inertial systems with Bell Aerospace-Textron and culminated his career as director of Niagara Operations with Lockheed Martin.
"Mr. Neeson's talk will acquaint students and the public with the rich history of the aeronautical industry in Western New York going back to the earliest days of manned flight and continuing into the space age," said Dr. Jerry Kiefer, chair of the Physics Department.
"Students will learn that the aerospace industry continues to provide opportunities to students in the STEM fields for scientific and technical careers in the region today."
Neeson has a bachelor's degree in physics from Canisius College and an MBA from the University at Buffalo. He is the brother of Dr. John Neeson, professor emeritus in the Department of Physics.
Buffalo once had more than 20 aircraft companies in the early part of the 20th century before the consolidation of 12 companies created Curtiss-Wright Corp., the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States by the end of World War II.
During the war, Curtiss-Wright and Bell Aircraft Corp. produced approximately 30,000 airplanes for the U.S. Armed Forces, according to Hugh Neeson.
Application forms, procedures and additional information
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Bill Mullins wrote:The only one making errors of probability here is you, Chris, when take individual probabilities and multiply them together to imply that their product reveals some ultimate probability.
Take the example just mentioned. Suppose that 100,000 of 76 million Americans in 1901 were good writers, and suppose that there were 2000 First Edition copies of Expert. You've suggested, then, that that means that there were ~3 good writers who owned a First Edition copy of Expert. That would be true If and Only If the distribution of good writers, and the population of people who owned 1st Ed copies of Expert, were independent of each other.
But they almost certainly weren't independent of each other. Good writers, as a group, tend to read more than average people, and have more books than average people.
It is called an estimate. The number of first editions is an estimate. How many good writers there are in the population is an estimate. The independence I have assumed is also an estimate. But an estimate is much better than entirely ignoring that facts need to be combined to judge the strength of a case. Not putting facts together is a much bigger error than assuming statistical independence in this case. Come up with better estimates. Quantify the dependence. The result, the relative strength of various cases compared against each other, will not fundamentally change.


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Sister Rose Pacatte, a member of the Daughters of St. Paul who directs the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles, talks about television being more than just a boob tube but a moral laboratory.
It's a safe bet that Sister Rose Pacatte watches more TV and movies than you do. She even has TiVo, which only seriously addicted TV watchers will admit to. If you asked her about this, she would say, "Hey, it's all part of my job!" And you might nod and say indulgently, "Of course it is, Sister."
But she would be telling the truth. Pacatte, a member of the Daughters of St. Paul, directs the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles. She went to the University of London in the 1990s to get a master's degree in media studies, because no such degree was offered in the U.S. Along with her work connecting media and faith, Pacatte co-founded the National Film Retreat and has served on the juries of the Venice and Berlin Film Festivals. She also co-authored Lights, Camera, Faith! A Movie Lover's Guide to the Scripture (Pauline Rooks and Media).
Pacatte says TV is more than just the boob tube–it's a moral laboratory. She encourages parents to watch TV with their kids and to help them understand what they're watching, and then measure it against the values of the gospel. Helping children become media-savvy, she says, is giving them a gift they'll use for life. Even if they do end up watching too much crummy TV.
Many parents today are at their wits' end about what their kids see on TV. What do you suggest?
Face it, the kids are watching TV. We adults need to be watching, too, so we can talk about the very sensitive issues that often do conflict with our faiths teachings and our beliefs and our moral life. You can't just not watch it. That's not an answer.
Adults need to articulate their values. I work with groups of teachers and parents all the time, and I always ask of them, "Articulate the three most important values in your life that guide you individually or as a family." You'd think I was inviting them to have their teeth pulled at the dentist. For some people it's very difficult. They don't know what I mean by a value, which is an overriding, transcendent ideal that guides our lives. If you can't articulate your values, how do you communicate them to your kids? Do you just say, "Not in my house you don't"?
What's wrong with saying that?
Because you're not giving any reasons for the choices you're making regarding media. You're just using power because you feel defenseless against this onslaught of popular culture. That doesn't help. Your children will just go out the back door to someone else's house, without any skills, saying, "My dad doesn't let me watch South Park" (Actually it's,"My mom doesn't let me watch South Park. My dad is home watching it.")
If the parents would sit down with the kids and watch South Park, first of all they would find out it's pretty funny, because it makes fun of adults' inconsistencies in their beliefs. It's pure toilet humor and worse sometimes-crass-but do you think anyone's going to be sent to hell for using toilet humor?
When I talk to parents' groups, I bring a clip of South Park and say, "Some of you are going to be offended by this, but let's watch it because your kids are watching this."
"No, mine aren't," some of them will say. And I say, "Yes, they are." There's a huge underground of sharing tapes and recording shows. Then we watch the clip, and at the first bathroom joke that comes on, the women all roll their eyes, and the men are on the floor laughing. Don't ask me why.
Probably because it's funny.
It is funny, but it's not immoral.
Don't you think parents with children of a certain age should set limits on what is appropriate for their kids to watch?
I don't disagree with that at all. What I'm saying is explain your reasons. The only way you can do that is if you know what your values are and how your values are not being reflected in this particular program. In other words, why is it that 6-year-old Johnny should not be watching South Park?
What should a parent say?
"Johnny, there are things in this show that you'll be able to understand better when you're older. Right now let's watch Dora the Explorer. I'll sit and watch it with you."
Don't you think kids watch too much TV in general?
When my sister was pregnant with her first child, she swore to me that she wasn't going to use TV and computers with her kids. Now she has a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old. They have a DVD player in the car. The 3-year-old has his own computer in his bedroom. Every person in the house except the youngest has their own TV.
I asked my sister, "What happened to all your ideals?" She said, "Life."
Last time I was there babysitting, the boys said, "Let's put on Pirates of the Caribbean." And I said, "No, I'm in charge of the television." So we played dominoes for a while and made a big mess, and then I started flipping channels and came to the World Championships of Ice Skating. I love to watch ice skating.
I said, "Hey guys, go put your socks on, and we'll ice skate." And for the next hour they "ice skated" on the wooden floor in the living room. Now that was work, but I'm the aunt-I can visit every couple of months and do that. To ask my sister to do that on a daily basis is probably beyond reason.
I do think parents and children ought to take stock of what activities they believe are most important for the whole family, and then figure out how much time each week they actually spend doing certain things: watching TV, talking to each other, school, sports, e-mail, going to church, etc.
When you look at how much time you're spending on media and so forth, it's a wake-up call that family members may be spending too much time on individual activities rather than family activities. Once we ask ourselves what we are doing with the rest of our lives, we see how much media is too much.
Right now, by the way, studies show that adults are spending five hours a day watching TV, and kids are watching seven to eight hours a day on average.
Are we all just hopelessly addicted to television?
No, I think we lead really busy, compressed lives at high tension, and TV is a way to decompress. Is that good or bad? It depends on how you use it.
And just because it's Disney doesn't mean it's fine for kids to watch. Disney is the most commercially driven entity possible-tying in to Happy Meals at McDonald's for example. People think, well, at least there's no sex. Wrong-there are plenty of highly sexualized figures in Disney's children's movies. The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Pocahontas, to name a few.
Why would Disney sexualize children's movie heroines?
Well, the people buying the tickets are the parents. So there's a level for parents and a level for children. The humor and the images keep the adult eyes interested; meanwhile the kids start wanting to dress like the Little Mermaid.
Do you think parents worry too much or too little about what their kids are watching?
Some don't worry at all. Some worry and don't do anything. Some worry a great deal and are really involved in their kids' media lives. Then there's a fourth kind who are so obsessed about it that they completely do away with any media.
I was once on a call-in show, and a dad called in and said, "When our oldest was 6 years old, we took the TV and threw it away. They've been raised without television, and they're these great kids."
Then he said, "I think every family in America should take their TV out in the front yard and make a public display of destroying it with a sledgehammer."
Can you imagine the whole street doing that? It would make a great Simpsons episode.Seriously, though, while I might not agree with that, obviously he and his wife had been so involved in the upbringing of their children that, yes, their kids have done well. Good for them.
But you'd say their kids were probably watching TV at someone else's house, right?
Of course. So many parents are in denial. They don't think their kids are watching this stuff. They don't think they're being influenced by it, but it's in the air we breathe and the water we drink. We live in a mediated culture. Everything is mediated visually or through sound in one v way or another.{C}
What are some principles parents can use to help kids understand what the media is sending at them?
Let's start with the parents themselves, with their own self-awareness. Look at your own house. What media is around you? How do you get your own entertainment and information from the media?
Then start asking questions about the media you consume. Start with asking, whose interest is at stake here-who made this program?
Actually kids are pretty cynical about advertising. They know by the age of 10 that they're being bought and sold. It's just a matter of talking about it, bringing it up in a casual, nonpreachy way. As soon as you get preachy, kids go out the door.
Everybody's interested in money. They're also interested in sex and in who's got the power. Poverty, chastity, and obedience come right from what Jesus taught in the gospels. That's why we religious take those vows; they hit the main issues of money, sex, and power. The idea of being media-savvy is pretty relevant to our faith life.
What are some of the main values that come through in popular media?
Let's take Seinfeld. The problem with Seinfeld was that everything was the same. Whether you go out and have an abortion or whether you order a pepperoni pizza-same difference. Life is just a bunch of choices.
You could see the same thing on Dawson's Creek, where the value is: "It's not what you know, it's what you feel. As long as you feel it's the right thing to do, it's fine." What is that? That's not about conscience. That's not about looking at the fact that my rights end where yours begin. It's not about freedom and responsibility.
Dawson's Creek was the mouthpiece for every popular philosophy out there: realism, relativism, subjectivism, anything. It was a marketplace of pop philosophy, and you could actually find it in any five-minute segment of that show. It was amazing. There were hardly any parents in that show at all who were actually involved in their kids' lives. Very interesting.
I sometimes use a great clip from the end of the first Survivor show, where Susan inverts the Beatitudes. Remember? "If I see you lying by the side of the road hungry and dying, I will not give you food," she says to the woman she's angry at. "I will not give you water. I will walk on by." Parents can make a joke of it and say, "Oh boy, that sounds just like Jesus." Or more seriously, "Boy, I wonder what Jesus would have said at that moment." Maybe the kid will say, "Oh, don't be so corny." But it stays with them.
You can also start asking children, "Who's missing from this picture?" In Barney's Great Adventure, for example, the only adults in the show are grandparents. Parents were missing. It's good to talk about that. Ask your kids, "So where do you think the parents are?"
You can also look at whether the characters face consequences for their actions. In Too Fast and Too Furious you see guys bouncing out of these fast-moving cars and getting up and walking away. It's funny to adults. We know it's not real, but to kids who don't understand cause and effect at that age, it can be a problem.
Are there any good messages in the media?
A movie like Titanic actually had some values in it, along with some nonvalues. It had a whole metaphor for freedom. Remember when the mother is tying the girl into her corset? "You've got to marry that jerk," she's saying in effect. "We need the money." The girl is being made to do what she doesn't want to do. Then you have the immigrants down in the hold who are all dancing and singing.
One of our nuns saw that movie and said, "Oh, just another love story." And our novice director said, "Oh really? Well, who was a free person? Who was spiritually free?" Jack was the one with freedom, who could make choices. He wasn't encumbered by all the cultural things that Rose was encumbered by. But that's a perfect place to start talking about human freedom or the lack of it.
What about parents who wouldn't let their kids see a movie like that because of the sex scenes?
I do think there are dangers with doing strictly content analysis, where all you ask is, how many bad words are there, how much sexuality is portrayed, how much liquor is portrayed, how much smoking is there. Now, these are issues especially for young children, because the media normalizes this kind of behavior. But for older children what you need is critical engagement.
Everwood, which I loved until this season, was a great family show. This season the father starts sleeping with a woman. They don't show it, but it was obvious. The son confronts the father. Meanwhile the son is having sex with his girlfriend. He's only 16 and the girlfriend is 20 and she gets pregnant.
Now, stuff like this really happens. So how do you deal with it? You can talk about it by saying to kids, "This can happen, and the father isn't even giving a good example here to his children."
You can also say, "Is this a show we want to keep watching? It's not really making us grow and giving us the things to talk about the way it used to. It's moved into total soap opera zone right now." So then you make a decision and try to find something else.
What exactly is critical engagement?
Critical engagement means to be aware of our media world, to reflect on it, to inquire about the world views and values it presents, the techniques used to construct it and why. Media literacy-that is, critical engagement with our media culture-is about inquiry and helping us live mindfully and choose wisely.
The point is, what is the context? You need to look at the whole story. Look at the movie Erin Brockovich. Some parents didn't want their teenage girls watching that film because Erin used her body to get what she wanted: she leans over the counter with a low-cut blouse on.
But the movie showed her as a spiritually poor woman, a materially poor woman with no support system, no skills. Yet she became a person who virtually laid down her life for other people and caused great good to happen out of her poverty. She's a Christ figure. She's a Good Shepherd figure.
So yes, you can talk to your kids and say, "We don't use our bodies to get what we want. I hope if you ever get to that point in your life, if you ever feel you don't have support, you come to me. I will always be here for you. I hope you don't make choices that get you in that situation, but I will be here for you."
What about a dad who says, for example, that critical thinking about the media is all well and good, but it can't really counteract the pervasive lure of sex and violence aimed at his teenage boys?
There's no way sex will ever not be attractive to a teenager-it's just part of the human condition. That dad has to remember back to when he was a teenager.
Does the dad just want to counteract what's on TV or does he want to give his boys the skills to deal with it? The answer is to provide the skills and values. If kids know your values, they may go off and do some things you object to, but when they're 20 or 30 with kids of their own, those values are going to kick in.{C}
What about parents who are afraid of what media is doing to their kids?
A lot of parents will stop being afraid of the media world if they're more aware of their own media world and their own practices and values. Then they will have some control over it, because they can say why they don't like something and why it's inappropriate for a child.
A lot of it is being aware of what your child is watching. "Well, Johnny, we don't watch that show because it demeans women." Or,"We don't accept that kind of language. It shows a great lack of inspiration, and besides, people are offended by those words. Don't you think people have a more creative way to talk about their frustrations and their anger than just defaulting to the same old words?"
Do kids eventually begin to critically engage the media on their own?
Yes, they do. There's a parish in Massachusetts that has a monthly movie and pizza party for teenagers. They showed Family Man, in which Nicholas Cage shows up in his briefs two or three times. Finally the third time one of the 13-year-old boys says, "Why do they have to keep showing him in his underwear?"
Later when they were having their snacks and talking about the movie, a girl brings it up: "Do you remember what you said about him in his underwear? Now you know how girls feel when they're watching a movie with boys and they see women in their underwear."
Sometimes it's best to have the patience to let the kids talk it out and encourage that conversation. Kids will have something to say about what they've seen if parents know how to ask without passing judgment, by drawing the kid out rather than trying to break the kid's head open and put something in it.
But if they think their parents will disapprove, kids will not talk about it. They won't talk about their music, for example, because music is sacred to a teenager-it has an emotional connection. They don't want to hear their music trashed.
So even if parents don't like a kid's media choices, they should be respectful of what the child is watching or listening to?
You're never going to be able to have an open conversation with your child if you don't let him or her know that they can come to you and talk about something.
I know a woman with a daughter who's a senior in high school. Last year the daughter, who's a pretty responsible kid, wanted to go to R-rated movies. The mother was leery; she hadn't even liked some of the PG-13 movies her daughter went to see. Finally she told her daughter, "I'll make a deal with you. You need to ask my permission for each of these R-rated movies, because some I will not give you permission to see. After you see a movie, I want you to come home and tell me if you saw God in it or not, and we can have a conversation about it. If you promise to do that, then you can go."
It has worked very well for them. If you don't respect the other person's interpretation or choices, you're not going to be able to share your values. The only way is to respect and to be willing to listen.
So if my kid wants to listen to the most outlandish of hip-hop artists, I shouldn't say right off the bat, that's forbidden?
I would ask, "Why do you like that?" I think you have to then motivate them to choose something else.
Do you wear your habit when you go to R-rated movies at the theater?
Oh, no. Are you kidding? Everybody would get whiplash. It would distract people. Also, there's a general misunderstanding about R-rated films. R-rated means the content and sometimes other issues have been determined to be for grownups, not that they are "bad" movies.
So no one realizes they're watching an R-rated movie with a nun?
Well, I went to see The Missing back in December, and there were five or six people in the theater. I'm coming down the steps during the credits, and there's this young woman sitting there. I said, "Did you like it?" She said, "I'm from North Dakota. I did Indian Studies. I don't think I like the way the Indians were treated."
She asked, "Why are you so interested?" I told her I was a nun who did film reviews. It turns out that she had come to the movies that day because she thought her boyfriend was going to propose to her and she didn't know if she was ready.
She said, "I came here to figure out my life. I've seen three movies. This is where I come when I have to think about my life."
I said, "Here you are really needing a retreat and you came to the movies." So we went to a coffee shop and spent an hour talking about discernment, spiritual direction, going to worship. Her boyfriend, interestingly enough, was Catholic. I just said to her, "You have to be free. If you don't feel free in making your decision, then you have to wait. You've got to take time to pray and discern about it."
You see, people use the movies for all different purposes. I wonder how much the church is aware of this.
What do you think of the fact that Catholics seem to especially take offense at certain movies?
A lot of people made a fuss about Kevin Smith's movie Dogma a few years back. I wrote a chapter on him in a book I wrote on Catholic directors. He grew up without understanding the faith that was around him. Nobody explained it to him. That movie wasn't teaching us to be disrespectful-it was asking questions. He was giving back to us what he understood about Catholicism, and it was a mess. Hello, wake-up call. These people are not our enemies; they're our mission field.
Do you believe in boycotts?
I think they're totally useless. They might work in the short term, but they don't work for the long term. I think there's a place for them in America, but that's not where I choose to put my energies. When I see something good on TV, I do write a letter and make a phone call.
How can we move the quality of TV and movies up a notch?
You have the next generation of filmmakers in your home and in your pews and in your schools; that's how you move it up a notch. There is no law you can pass to improve quality.
Don't you ever get down about the quality of our media?
You can't end up in total negativity, so much so that all hope is gone. What the faith community brings to this is the fact that there is hope because we can keep talking, we can keep bringing a conscience to productions that are there, and to the audience. We can generate a groundswell among us, but it's like evangelization: It's one person at a time.
Despair is not acceptable to me. I always believe there is something proactive we can do. We can always act by choosing, by engaging, by mining the media that's out there for the good that is present. So long as we have the freedom to act, we can make a difference. And even if it's a small difference, it's worth it.


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There are pictures of the original I-spy quilt here and here.
I'm toying with the idea of a new incarnation, but that's as far as I've gone.Yesterday I discovered I couldn't find my keys right as I was supposed to take the morning car-pool to school. So I had to swallow all pride and call my neighbor at the literal last second to drive. All other excursions were put on hold as I scoured the house for my keys. After a couple of hours of looking (and cleaning – which was a nice by product) I realized I was home-bound for the day. So I finally tackled some of my etsy projects. This one was almost ready to go, but it felt good to get it done and pictures taken. I am also planning a destash Tag Sale at the end of the month, so keep your eyes peeled for some screaming deals. Also some other new listings this month!


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I know you have been waiting to see the new 4G EPIC product.
2013 is quickly showcasing our strength in development and delivering unique products for very specific demands. We've been traveling the world seeking rider input, testing and refining our gear so that we can bring you the very best.
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And not to leave out the groms – the JUNIOR PRO 4 kite, JUNIOR PRO board and JUNIOR PRO Xtend bar are built specifically for young people. We highly support the future of kiteboarding by being the only company to offer a package that is loaded with safety features. We look forward to seeing the next generation develop and progress.
The 4G XTEN BAR compliments all of our kite models through its ease of use and flexibility. Over a year in design and development, the new chicken loop is one of the fastest on the market. Safety is paramount, and you need equipment that can be trusted. Our new design is built tough and reliable – no detail has been overlooked. The new CL can also be adapted to our previous bars and can be purchased individually.
For the surf riders, you'll love our new partnership with legendary shaper Jesse Fernandez. Our REEF surf boards have been redesigned to improve tracking, stability, speed and response. These surf boards come in 5'11" and 6'0".
The twin tip line such as the OXYGEN V2, DROID V2 and SPARTAN V2 received a lot of attention and updates making them even more lively and fun. Bottom design sees improved water flow increasing speed, edge refinement allows them to track better, and rocker differences give them a snappy pop. Whatever your riding style or preference, these decks will suit your every need.
The 4G products will be released in different stages. Will be releasing the RENEGADE models first, then the 4G XTEND bar, followed by the SCREAMERS models, then the SURF models once we have it ready and the snow kites.
We strive for excellence in everything we do. We never rest, never sleep, never stop testing and will never stop until you're completely happy and on the water.
P.S. Will be posting more info on the RENEGADE models shortly. But right now enjoy the 4G EPICKITES intro video.


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Wow no Johnie Mac in there, I would say Edberg and Mc Enroe
maybe not greatest FH volley, but greatest hands at net ever
Yeah, that's what I was thinkin'. That's a special category I guess. Touch and deftness.
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Someone had mentioned earlier in this thread that voltage was linked to clock frequency, so thats what I was going off.
Comms is not an issue as I'm programming the 328 in an Arduino then taking it out and dropping it in my PCB.
Marvin Martian, why do you think you would need to reprogram the bootloader?
As I understand it, clock speed is hard-coded into the bootloader, so changing the crystal isn't enough to change the speed. You would need to program a new bootloader in as well.
Why reprogram the arduino when you can just buy a crystal for 2 bucks
The last thing that needs to be done is adjusting the Arduino IDE preferences file: ~/Library/Arduino/preferences.txt on the Mac and C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Arduino\preferences.txt on Windows:The build.f_cpu preference needs to be set to 1000000L


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This issue led to the rise of the minicomputer. The minicomputer could do most of the functions of the mainframe, at a lower cost. They were still expensive; however, businesses could buy a number of minicomputers instead of - or in addition to - the mainframe infrastructure.
Minicomputers, like the mainframe, run multi-user operating systems and are accessed through terminals.Client-side computing
Mainframes and minicomputers needed trained operators and programmers. Most of the applications written for these systems were specific to the business needs. The introduction of personal computers - particularly the IBM PC and Apple systems - saw the writing of business applications, which could be used by a wide range of users without programming skills.
One of the keys to these applications was the spreadsheet. Managers, with no programming skills, could use these applications for ad hoc business modelling and reporting.
While PCs were expensive and unreliable when compared to the machines available today, they provided managers with dedicated access to computing resources. This led to the rapid adoption of PCs in business.
This proliferation of PCs drove the introduction of local area networks (LANs) across organizations. The need for business managers to share their files was the driving force. And it also allowed some costs to be centralised - printers, which were still expensive at the time, could be shared amongst many users.
The common configuration at the time was to have user files stored on centralised Intel-based server hardware, generally running Novell NetWare rather than on client PCs. Printers and tape backup hardware were attached to these centralised servers.
At first, this centralised, Intel-based server hardware was just a PC with extra memory. However, over time this hardware took on features that added to reliability.Client-server to the fore
Very quickly PCs began to have more and more processing power, which led to the rise of client/server computing, the essence of most recent computing infrastructure, and has driven the market for server hardware.
File serving - as described earlier - is perhaps the simplest form of client/server computing. An example of this is a user running a spreadsheet on their client machine, but with the file stored on a network server. In this example of client/server computing, the client does most of the computation while the server essentially provides disk access and the computing resources to move the data off the server's disk and onto the network.
Software application servers generally place the emphasis on the server carrying out most of the computation. For example, a client-side application may request some information from a database server. The database server will perform the calculations required and provide the results back to the client application. The client application can then manipulate and present the results to the user, using the computational power of the client system.
In the example of a Web server serving pages built around server-side scripting languages such as ASP or PHP, the server performs all the work, with only the client rendering the results. In pages that include client-side Java or JavaScript, the client will provide not only support presentation but also run the Java.
Another common configuration is a server running the Windows Server operating system and Windows Terminal Server. Application software runs on the server with access to the applications from the client made using Terminal Server software. The Terminal Server software transmits screen, keyboard and mouse information to the Terminal Server client software running on the client PCs. The server hardware is running the entire application for multiple users.


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SPRINGFIELD - Court documents say child porn was found on a southwest Missouri school board member's electronic devices while authorities were investigating reports that he exposed himself.
Sixty-seven-year-old John Lewis, of Sarcoxie, was charged Friday in federal court in Springfield with possessing child pornography.
The U.S. attorney's office said Lewis was arrested before Thursday night's Sarcoxie school board meeting. He remains in federal custody and doesn't have an attorney.
The affidavit says Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers contacted Lewis while investigating reports that he exposed himself to a group of high school students who were working for him on his farm outside Sarcoxie. Troopers obtained a search warrant and found 19 multimedia files of child pornography and 113 images of suspected child pornography.
Authorities say children as young as 5 were shown.


text:
Anonymous CompaniesPress release
Luanda Leaks expose role of financial secrecy and western professionals in moving tainted money
New revelations about how Isobel dos Santos amassed her fortune, allegedly at the expense of the Angolan state, once again reveal a global system of financial secrecy complicit in her schemes
A Rough Trade
A seminal Global Witness report on the role of diamonds in funding the Angolan civil war.
Oil, Gas & MiningCampaign
Oil, Gas and Mining
Money from oil, gas and mining can help lift entire countries out of poverty in much of the developing world. Properly managed, it can build schools, hospitals and roads, and reduce dependency on international aid. But all too often, the revenue goes missing because deals are done behind closed doors, allowing small, corrupt elites to profit at the expense of ordinary citizens.
Oil, Gas & MiningArticle
The Turn Towards Transparency
The global movement to end the corruption that has helped keep citizens in resource-rich countries poor.
Press Release / May 20, 2010
Goldman Sachs backs Angolan oil deal despite corruption risks
The investment bank Goldman Sachs is backing an oil deal in Angola by U.S. firm Cobalt International Energy, despite a risk that local partners in the deal could expose Cobalt to prosecution for corruption in the United States, Global Witness revealed today. Goldman Sachs is a major shareholder in Cobalt and two of its executives sit on Cobalt's board. Agreements with the Angolan state oil company, Sonangol, give Cobalt shares in two Angolan oil exploration blocks and assign it two local partners, Alper Oil Limitada and Nazaki Oil and Gáz S.A.1
Press Release / March 15, 2010
Link between Angolan president's son-in-law and state oil company raises questions about transparency
Sonangol, the state-owned oil company of Angola, nominated the son-in-law of Angola's President dos Santos to the board of a holding company that owns a third of the listed Portuguese oil firm Galp Energia, Global Witness has learned.
Press Release / Oct. 28, 2009
Global Witness welcomes French "Angolagate" verdict as victory for justice
A Paris court's decision to convict 36 people in connection to illegal arms sales to Angola during its civil war in the 1990s, including arms dealers, middlemen and French politicians, is a victory for the rule of law and Angolan victims of the conflict, Global Witness said today. "Justice has prevailed despite Angolan government attempts to stop the case," said Simon Taylor of Global Witness, which has been investigating corruption in Angola since 1999. The country is rich in oil but its people mostly live in dire poverty.
Press Release / Oct. 5, 2009
IMF risks condoning corruption with new loan to Angola
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) should not go ahead with plans for a multi-million dollar loan to Angola, whose oil-rich government is highly corrupt, without stringent conditions that require the opening up of the country's oil industry to public scrutiny, the anti-corruption watchdog Global Witness said ahead of the IMF's Annual Meeting in Turkey.
Press Release / Aug. 5, 2009
'Resource Curse' should be key focus of Clinton's Africa visit
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should put a strong emphasis on how best to manage natural resource wealth and avoid conflict and corruption on her official tour of Africa this week, said campaign group Global Witness today. Among the seven countries she will visit, Angola, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria are key examples of how abundant natural resource wealth - such as oil, minerals, and timber - can be more of a curse than a blessing, causing or exacerbating conflict and corruption.


text:
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Each night, your epic cruise ship glides toward new ports of call, drawing you closer to Europe's incredible landmarks and off-the-beaten-path gems. In Italy, charming homes clinging to the cliffs of Cinque Terre inspire with their pastel beauty, while an excursion just outside of Rome transports you to a local farm where a family thoughtfully prepares you a meal of homemade pasta. In France, be dazzled by the turquoise waters of the French Riviera while the vineyards of Provence entice you to explore deeper. This is just a sample of the ports visited during Norwegian Epic®'s seven-day European voyages.
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If your a WI lurker, please post and say hi! We're really nice and we like to make new friends. I'm new here and everyone was really kind to me!
4 posts • Page 1 of 1
Re : Readers
I agree with Jen and think that it is other states visiting us via the WI forum.
Re : Readers
I think other members from dif. states read our posts too. I would hope that there are other Wisconsinites lurking around though. I know I lurked for quite a while before posting.
I notice that we get a ton of readers in our little local group forum for WI. Are the numbers really skewed from all of us checking back in on topics, or are there that many non-WI people that read thru the different local forums, or are there that many WI "members" that don't post? Just curious what your thought are?
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text:
CEL holds levy hearing, prepares for bond issuance for building
renovations, and reorganizes board
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[January 02, 2013]
The Chester-East Lincoln School board
met Dec. 18 for its monthly meeting. Prior to the meeting
there was a brief hearing for a tax levy presentation. Due to recent
member departures, highlights of the actual board meeting included a
few procedural items in reorganizing the board.
A short presentation was given by
Superintendent Jennifer Hamm on the subject of the tax levy for
She provided a quick summary of how
the tax levy process works:
In November, the
proposed levy is presented to the board of education.
In December, the
levy is passed by the board after any discussion and given to
the county clerk's office.
The following
April, the county clerk releases the equalized assessed
valuation and the extension for the next fiscal year.
In July, the first installment of taxes
is received by the school.
Hamm also reminded those present that the school year is funded
by previous tax dollars. For example, the current school year is
funded with 2011 tax dollars.
As the law requires that the county clerk's office collects tax
levy data by the last Tuesday of December, the school has to
estimate any potential increase in residential and commercial
property values within the district.
If the board's estimate is too low, they could lose tax dollars.
Estimating above 4.99 percent would normally result in a
presentation being given to the public to explain the reasoning for
raising the tax levy; such a presentation will not be necessary this
Hamm informed the board that the only change made to the tax levy
plan was a reduction in IMRF money. This reduction was made in order
to provide more available money for the school tort fund in order to
pay legal fees that will arise when the school sells alternate
revenue bonds to pay for school improvements.
The amount of $1,746,586 would be requested at the same the rate
as last year, 2.70 percent.
The tax levy was approved later, during the actual meeting.
Board procedure
Kenny Golden, board president, asked that everyone present remain
silent for a brief moment after the Pledge of Allegiance in honor of
those who died in Connecticut on Dec. 14.
Board member Leslie Starasta formally stepped down as board
secretary in order to take on the role of treasurer. The treasurer
will also be taking on the duties of the business and compliance
officer, a position formerly held by Karen Beverlin. Board member
Tina Warfel took on the position of secretary.
Board member Ben Roland took Golden's place as vice president,
and the board accepted Golden as the new president. The former
president, Keith Birnbaum, stepped down from the position in
November, citing a conflict with other priorities that required his
Kenda Kitner was also officially sworn in to take her place on
the school board. Kitner is replacing Joel Vinson, who also resigned
from the board last month to pursue other priorities outside of the
school district.
Another aspect of board procedure that was addressed is a
rewriting of language within board policy. While no changes are
being made, a part of the policy has been rewritten to better
reflect the rules of public interaction with the board.
Jeff Brooks, a former board president, believes that the change
in language will discourage public participation. "This is stifling
the community from public input," said Brooks.
Jim Rohrer told the board that he does not understand why any
changes are being made, and he feels that the board is using this as
a way to isolate themselves from public input.
Starasta commented later in the meeting that the board is simply
looking to make the definition clearer as to what a public comment
at a board meeting should be.
[to top of second column]
Golden clarified that "the role of the public comment section is
not for interaction between the board; it is for the public to make
statements to the board. ... If there are questions that need to be
answered, they can be taken down (recorded)."
Essentially, the board meetings are not for the public to
question individual board members. Rather, the meetings are for
concerns to be brought forward. It is up to the board members to
address those questions at future meetings. The public gives the
board direction as to how to focus their time.
"I would agree that it doesn't seem to be the best format, but
remember that our meetings are business meetings," added Golden, who
said that this is how other schools in the area conduct their
Hamm reminded everyone that the board has a quarterly forum for
questions and interactions with the public. Hamm also said that the
board is to operate as a whole, not as individuals.
Roland said that the same procedure is used by the city and
county officials at their meetings. "I don't see anything here that
is more restrictive than what our colleagues in the community have,"
said Roland.
Starasta said that the board members are available to be
contacted in other ways for members of the public to voice concerns.
Paying for renovations
In order to pay for renovations that will be made to the school
over the next few years, the school will sell financial bonds. Hamm
provided paperwork to the board from Stifel Nicolaus, the company
that CEL will be working with to sell the bonds.
Alternate revenue bonds will be sold in an amount not to exceed
$1.8 million. The board assured those present that they are not
intending to call on the maximum amount.
Starasta summarized by saying that the board can use up to $1.8
million in this manner, but as they are still looking at designs to
determine exactly where to start, no set number has been decided on.
"It is potentially possible that we could come in under the 1.8,
and we have some flexibility in making some decisions along the
way," said Starasta.
As the money used to pay for the bonds will be from the 1 percent
sales tax, the tax cannot be taken from the district by any new
state law until the payments are completed.
This money will be used in addition to $1 million provided by
health-life-safety funds as approved by the state.
Tom Crabtree of Stifel Nicolaus told the board that their action
taken on Dec. 18 was simply to announce their intent formally,
and the actual bonds could be sold in February.
Jean Underwood of BLDD was present to tell the board that they
are expecting to see more detailed designs of the renovations in
Board members present were Kenny Golden, president; Ben Roland,
vice president; Tina Warfel; Larry Hall; Leslie Starasta; Kenda
Kitner; and Superintendent Jennifer Hamm.
[By DEREK HURLEY]
Chester-East Lincoln 2012 tax levy information
Past related articles
CEL school board accepts 3 resignations
Building renovation plans continue: Experts explain funding and
advise on HVAC options
CEL potential building plan moves to
school board
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text: n00dle Posted November 17, 2006 So like, just as I walked out of my last uni exam this little bird chirped in my ear and somehow I was able to understand what the bird was saying, and he said: "There's a Brisbane EB meet soon!" Anyone wanna shed some new light on this? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


text:
Like most sequels, our second day in Kyoto was just not as good as the first.
We left a little earlier but we're still overwhelmed by the amount of places to see and the limited time that we had to see them.
Gf had a much better idea of where we should go. I did have a look at my Lonely Planet guide, but I wasn't sure which places were better than others.
SO.. First we went to Rokuon-ji Temple, otherwise known as Golden Pavilion for obvious reasons.
Today is the Labour Day holiday for the japanese, so it was incredibly crowded.
As you can see here, the maple leaves were as red as the ones in Higashiyama area.
Reaching this area is not very easy. It is really accessible only by bus. Being a busy day the buses were packed and moving so slowly that one could walk faster than this.
This made it worse, making us both feel lethargic and short-tempered.
Next we went across to Ryoanji Temple to check out.. some rocks.
Not wanting to take the unusual route, we took the usual one to the Rock Garden."The longer you gaze at it, the more varied your imagination becomes". At least that's what it says in the brochure. There are fifteen rocks in the garden. From every angle it's impossible to see all fifteen at once. Fascinating.
To end off a hectic day we walked around Kyoto Station.
It's the 10th anniversary of it's existence. It's a very modern station, so it looks new to me.
After hours of getting all templed out, it's a nice break to see something different.
From the station we could see the Kyoto Tower, but we didn't go up there. From Kyoto Station's (free) Skywalk we had a great view of the large Kyoto area.
What do you think this "ball" thing is? It's a Pachinko parlour! I just don't GET why japanese are so into this crap gambling habit.
Finally, we catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.
Shinkansen's are great. More space than I thought there'd be and super quick too. It's around about two hours to Tokyo.
I finally managed to take a pic as it was arriving into Kyoto Station.
As a final note, I just want to say a "Happy Birthday".
I don't want to make a big deal about it, but I just want to thank everyone for all the "Happy Birthdays" I got.
Just hearing it made me feel special for at least one day, even though I don't like the thought of getting older and feeling like I haven't accomplished anymore than the year before. That clock just keeps on ticking.
I am a little disappointed by some things that happened today. No matter what happened it was MY day, and I don't need anyone or anything to bring me down. OK?
Friday, 23 November 2007
Kyoto II - The Sequel
Like most sequels, our second day in Kyoto was just not as good as the first.


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text:
Couple get $8 million for loss of daughter's body from San Antonio funeral home
Sharlotte and Timothy Mott weren't in court Tuesday to hear a jury award them $8 million after they found a San Antonio funeral home was negligent in the loss of their daughter's body before she was to be cremated in 2015.
Timothy Mott was at home, recuperating from a mild heart attack that occurred Friday following a grueling, nearly three-week trial in the civil suit filed against MPII Inc., which does business as Mission Park Funeral Chapels and Cemeteries.
Mark Greenwald, an attorney for the Motts, said after the verdict was read that the case was a hard one for the Mott family to endure, which is why they were only in court the days they testified.
"The Motts are happy that they got a jury verdict, but in the end we failed, as we did not find Julie, and that is all that really matters," Greenwald said.
The victory was bittersweet, Greenwald said.
"This isn't about the money," he said. "It's not going to return their daughter."
Julie Mott died Aug. 8, 2015. She was to be cremated after her funeral Aug. 15, 2015, at their Northwest Side facility. The next day, employees discovered her body missing from a damaged casket at Mission Park North on Cherry Ridge. The Motts accused the company of hiding the fact that they use third-party contractors that had unlimited access to their facilities and that their security codes and locks were outdated and hadn't been changed in years.
The company, through its owner, Robert "Dick" Tips, and his wife, Kristin, company president, had denied wrongdoing and had accused Bill Wilburn, Mott's ex-boyfriend, of stealing the body. They also alleged the Motts did not divulge that Wilburn was "obsessed with calling and texting" Julie Mott and that he had motive to steal the body because he did not want her cremated.
But the jury made one thing clear: They did not believe Wilburn — or anyone else — stole her body, an allegation the company made from the start.
The panel was specifically asked, "Did either John Doe or Bill Wilburn unlawfully appropriate the body of Julie Mott with the intent to deprive Tim and Sharlotte Mott of the remains?" They answered "no" beside both.
No arrests have been made in the disappearance, which is still under investigation by San Antonio police.
In addition, the jury awarded Tim and Sharlotte Mott $1.5 million each for mental anguish sustained in the past, and $2.5 million apiece for mental anguish "that, in reasonable probability, will be sustained in the future."
MPII owns 14 funeral homes and cemeteries in San Antonio that operate under the names of Mission or Mission Park, Alamo, Brookehill, Dellcrest, La Paz All Faiths, Oak Hills and Palm Heights. It also runs San Jose Burial Park and Simplicity Funeral Chapel.
Attorneys for the Motts had asked the jury to award their clients $10 million — $5 million apiece for past and future mental anguish experienced because of the loss of their daughter's body. Experts testified that financial compensation would not allow either parent to experience closure and would leave them stuck in the grieving process.
The jury received the case just before 12:30 p.m., and it took a little more than three hours to render a verdict.
The Tipses and their attorneys left the courtroom without comment after the verdict was read. It is unclear whether they will appeal the verdict. A call to defense attorney Ricardo Reyna was not immediately answered Tuesday evening.
Jurors in the 131st Civil District Court, presided by Judge Norma Gonzales, heard two weeks and two days of testimony in a case that has garnered national attention. They heard testimony from the Tipses and the Motts, whose relationship at one point was friendly — Timothy Mott worked as a pilot for Dick Tips, and the Tipses allowed the Motts to live in one of their homes where they could keep a horse, a hobby of Julie Mott's.
The panel also heard allegations of satanism from an employee with Beyer & Beitel Mortuary Services, which embalmed Julie Mott for Mission Park. Nicholas Moreno, who has worked for the company for nearly five years, testified in a video deposition that he did not pick up Mott and never had contact with the body while at the facilities. He acknowledged that he plays in a band called Flesh Hoarder and that satanic or demonic images on his Facebook page and that of the band is "just about the music."
His boss, Frederick Beyer, testified that Moreno was not involved in the Mott case.
Jurors also were schooled on how an embalming takes place, and last last week a casket was rolled into the courtroom so jurors could see how bodies are removed properly — through a trap door that lowers at the foot — and not from the top. Attorneys wanted to show the jury that whoever took the body broke the hinge on the casket because they removed the body from the top.
"MPII lost Julie Mott's body," plaintiffs' attorney Alex Katzman told the jury in his closing argument. "The company claims someone came in and stole it. Whether they lost or mishandled it, it really doesn't matter. They had custody and control, and they lost her body."
Katzman argued the company had no chain of command records, did not properly train its employees, and, unbeknownst to the Motts, the funeral used Beyer and Beitel Mortuary Services, a third-party contractor, for embalming purposes.
He went on to quote the funeral business' motto: "'When you trust your loved ones to us, they never leave our care, custody or control.' ... They made a promise. This is about what they were required to do," he said.
Defense attorney Reyna said there indeed was a theft, that the police investigated it that way, and the officer wrote it in his report.
"The greater weight of credible evidence in this case is that for more than 100 years, they've taken care of San Antonio families, and there's never been a body stolen," Reyna told the jury.
He showed a copy of a contract that the Motts signed when they agreed on services, noting that the documents stated that another company would do the embalming.
"Even Fred Beyer said at one time or another, all funeral homes use them," Reyna said. "Using B&B didn't cause the remains to be stolen."
Reyna told the jury should they wish for MPII to award anything, it should be for what a mental health expert said both Motts need — intense therapy for three years each, which Reyna said would amount to $125,000.
In his rebuttal to the defense, plaintiff attorney Ron Salazar asked the jury, "Is 125,000 the value of a destroyed life?"
"Sharlotte won't leave her home. She goes to work, she drives home and holds the sleeve of Julie Mott's jacket. He (Tim) sits all day, waiting for a red bird," Salazar said, recalling Timothy Mott's testimony that he had read seeing a cardinal after a loved one has passed means they are visiting.


text:
Throwback NBA Clip Of The Week: Michael Jordan Shows Why He Is The Best Player Hands Down! (40-Years-Old Doing This Type Of Ish)
Michael Jordan when he was a Wizard. Shot Block/Steal versus Bulls
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